Article Two Wrapped: Power, Representation, and Equity with Domenica Perrone

This episode aired on 11/27/24 on WICN 90.5FM

In this episode of Public Hearing, we wrap up Article Two of Worcester’s Home Rule Charter, exploring the structure and powers of the City Council. I’m joined by Domenica Perrone, a passionate community engagement practitioner and advocate for health equity, who shares her insights on Worcester’s governance and the challenges facing our city. Together, we examine how the Charter influences democracy, representation, and equity in local government. I also go on a rant about funding allocation to the City Council, which is a must-listen. 

Key Topics:

• City Council Structure
  • How at-large and district council seats are elected.
  • The unique Worcester system where at-large candidates are also automatically in the running for mayor.
• Emergency Ordinances and Decision-Making
  • The process for passing emergency ordinances and safeguarding public interests.
  • Limitations on emergency measures related to franchises and special privileges.
• Vacancy Filling Process
  • How council vacancies are filled through past election results and the implications for representation.
• Funding Disparities in City Government
  • Comparing the limited resources of the City Council to the City Manager’s office.
  • How these disparities affect democratic checks and balances.
• Barriers to Representation
  • Challenges of part-time council roles and underfunded constituent services.
  • The need for trust-building and transparency in public participation.
• Recommendations for Reform
  • Transitioning to full-time council roles with equitable salaries.
  • Expanding staff support and introducing participatory budgeting.
  • Exploring a strong mayor system and ranked-choice voting to enhance representation and equity.

Chapter Markers:

• [00:00:00] – Introduction
  Setting the stage for Article Two and welcoming guest Domenica Perrone.
• [00:03:08] – Emergency Ordinances
• [00:05:35] – General Measures and Public Notice
  The publication requirements for ordinances and ensuring public accessibility.
• [00:07:54] – Vacancy Filling Process
  How council and mayoral vacancies are addressed in Worcester.
• [00:13:22] – Funding Disparities and Council Capacity
  Examining how budget inequities impact representation and council efficacy.
• [00:19:20] – Recommendations for Reform
  Concrete steps to address funding, representation, and governance challenges.

Tune in to Public Hearing every Wednesday at 6 PM on WICN 90.5 FM or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you want to hear on the show? Reach out at QueerForCities.com! 

Learn more and follow at QueerForCities.com/PublicHearing

Created & Hosted by Joshua Croke.
Our Audio Producer is Giuliano D'Orazio.

Citations:

1. About our guest, Domenica Perrone
2. The Worcester Home Rule Charter
3. “The Annual Underfunding of Worcester City Council” (Tom Marino, June 4, 2024, This Week in Worcester)
4. UMass Chan Medical School’s Collaborative in Health Equity

Transcript

[00:00:00] Joshua Croke: Hello, Worcester and the world. You're listening to Public Hearing on WICN 90. 5 FM, Worcester's only NPR affiliate station and wherever you get your podcasts, Public Hearing is a podcast and radio show about Worcester, the second largest city in New England. I'm your host, Joshua Croke. I'm a designer, facilitator, and queer urbanist, and very importantly, a Worcester resident for over 13 years, working at the intersections, WICN to cultivate thriving communities, areas like education, equitable development, transformative justice, health equity, and transforming how we engage communities.

[00:00:33] This is Public Hearing. Let's dive in. If you've been following the show, we've jumped into an exploration and inspection of the Worcester Home Rule Charter or the charter, the guiding document that defines how our city functions. I really dove into article two last week, so we didn't quite fit it into our last episode.

[00:00:52] All of it. So we're going to wrap that up today and talk to a powerhouse guest that we've had on the show before, Domenica Perrone. Domenica, do you want to say a quick hello and who you are before I finish my rant about article two? And I'm really looking forward to catching up and hearing about how work life, all the things have been.

[00:01:10] Domenica Perrone: Awesome. Thank you, everyone.

[00:01:11] My name is Domenica Perrone, and I am a community engagement practitioner here in Worcester. I am a Latina, an immigrant, and I'm just a really passionate person about advocating for health equity. Public health initiatives and I have the great privilege of working at UMass Chan Medical School in the collaborative for health equity as a director for community engagement and outreach and I'm just really excited to be here today.

[00:01:39] Joshua Croke: It's so great to have you, and for folks who know Domenica's name, also know that Domenica formerly ran for public office for a city councilor at large in Worcester, unfortunately did not get the seat, as many were hoping, so the city charter might be a resonant topic of conversation with you as well.

[00:01:58] Domenica Perrone: And at the end of the day, I am a resident of Worcester. I live in district two. I have a lot of thoughts about all the beautiful things that are taking place in Worcester, but also, you know, I have, I have a critical lens in terms of like, Where we could be doing better, right? And I think that our charter is actually a, almost like a root cause, a sort of roadmap that was historically created, and we're still seeing a lot of those you know, impacts, the good, the bad in our day to day experiences here in the city.

[00:02:30] And it's based off of, oftentimes, this charter and the way our local government and municipality is set up.

[00:02:36] Joshua Croke: Absolutely, and so we are going to continue bring you conversations and inspections of the Worcester Home Rule Charter. 

[00:02:43] We left of with Article 2. 8 out of the 10 sections within article two which talks about officers elected by the city council, including the city auditor and the city clerk. I'm going to go on a brief funding rant in a second, but I want to just quickly wrap up article two with sections 9 and 10. So section nine of article two is about ordinances and other measures.

[00:03:08] Section two, nine, a emergency ordinances, and I'm not going to read this whole thing, but I will kind of talk about what the process is. So, the City Council generally can't pass ordinances right on the spot. They require time before final approval. However, in cases of urgent situations where there is an immediate threat to public health or safety, an emergency ordinance can be passed on the same day it's introduced.

[00:03:31] So this article talks about defining an emergency. So for an ordinance to be considered an emergency, the specific emergency must be outlined clearly in the ordinance's preamble. It must then be approved by at least eight members of the city council. And if you remember, there are 11 members, so that's a significant majority.

[00:03:48] There are limitations on emergency ordinances. So even in an emergency ordinances that involve special privileges or grants like franchises. They can't be rushed through as emergency measures, so these kinds of decisions still need to go through the regular ordinance process. with very few exceptions defined by state law.

[00:04:07] So that clause is saying essentially that the city council can't use emergency powers to fact tra fast track decisions related to special privileges or grants like franchises. So in this context, franchises are special permissions or rights granted by the city to private companies or entities to provide services to the public, like public utilities, think cable, gas, electricity, waste management, and so on.

[00:04:30] These rights often involve using public land or infrastructure, so they are a big deal. Special privileges or grants could also refer to exclusive rights or advantages given to a company or organization, which might include things like permits for particular business activities or renewal or extension of such privileges.

[00:04:49] The clause is strict about these kinds of decisions. So even in an emergency, the city council can't just bypass the normal process to approve This means that grants, extensions, or renewals of these privileges have to go through the usual legislative process with full council consideration and public input, unless state law specifically says otherwise.

[00:05:11] So, in short, this is a safeguard to ensure that public, that important public rights or city resources aren't quickly handed over to private entities without careful review, even in urgent situations. Thank you. That was a lot. I, B of this, this section is around measures in general. And again, I'm going to give a relatively like rapid fire overview of what this is saying.

[00:05:35] So the city can, the city council can pass most types of measures like resolutions or motions in a single meeting, unless a council member objects. If even one council member objects, the vote on the measure is unconstitutional. automatically postponed until the next meeting. This gives council members more time to review or discuss it, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:05:53] When the measure comes up again, if four or more council members still object to voting on it, the measure must be postponed for at least another five days. However, this quote unquote delay process can only happen once for any given measure. After that, the measure must go forward for a vote, even if there's further objection.

[00:06:12] So the rules attempting to allow additional discussion on a measure if there are concerns, but also prevents indefinite delays so that decisions still move forward in a timely manner.

[00:06:23] The third section of 2. 9 Publication. So this is talking about most ordinances or loan orders excluding emergencies must be published in a local newspaper at least 10 days before the final vote.

[00:06:38] This gives time the public time to review what's being proposed after an ordinance is passed. It must be published again in the same way. If the Ordinance is particularly long, over eight pages, the council can skip the newspaper ad and instead publish it in a municipal bulletin or printed pamphlet. There's, it talks about zoning ordinances you know, having a summary be published.

[00:06:59] This has to happen twice. The summary will also explain where the public can get a full copy and note that anyone challenging the ordinance has 90 days to do so. Emergency ordinances go into effect immediately and are published as soon as possible. So there are considerations about like modernizing this as well.

[00:07:18] And I don't know exactly where the city of Worcester is with like any amendments to the charter specifically around like digitizing information, but the city does have resources available online where you can look specifically through the city clerk section on the website that have all of these bulletins posted.

[00:07:36] So you can jump to that. Section 210 is about the filling of vacancies. When a city council seat becomes vacant, the city fills it by going down the list of candidates from the previous election. The candidate with the highest number of votes who didn't win will be offered the position, as long as they're still eligible and willing to serve.

[00:07:54] For at large councilors, the board of election commissioners certifies the candidate to complete the term. For district councilors, the same process applies within that specific district. district. If no eligible candidate is available in the district, a special election is held within 90 days to fill the seat.

[00:08:10] This is something that is like wild to me is that essentially the person who is elected to fill a role by the community, if they, you know, step off the council, if something happens that they can't fulfill their term, et cetera, there is no process to like, re elect a person to serve in that capacity, it literally goes to the next person in line from the last election. So this is something that, like, we can definitely go on a whole rant about. So, say we have a mayor that leans more progressive who is elected, but had a close challenger who is on the far opposite side of that, who places second. If the mayor were to step down or die or something happens, that person who is second steps into the seat of mayor.

[00:09:01] Domenica Perrone: I was going to say, this is an interesting point because it feels like, oh, you know, we haven't seen this, this hasn't happened, you know, at least in my time being here in Worcester for seven, eight years, I haven't seen someone step down necessarily, but we almost saw it.

[00:09:18] Right? And so a couple years ago when we had Mayor Petty running for Senate against now Senator Robin Kennedy, what would that have meant for us had he won his race? And that would have meant, that would have meant that his vice mayor at that time Donna Colorio, who is, you know, a well known Republican.

[00:09:41] Mayor Petty is a well known part of the Democratic Party. We know that our municipal elections are nonpartisan. Nonetheless, we, we see what type of values you know, these candidates represent, which is why they, you know, they do run against each other in their mayoral race, right? So I do think that during that campaign specifically, that kind of rose to the surface and that was some of the, the dialogue that I saw around that campaign during that time, because that would have had a very real impact on our city.

[00:10:10] We would have had a new mayor right in the middle of the term.

[00:10:14] Joshua Croke: Absolutely. And I also, in our last episode highlighted, and I have a personal passion slash commitment for wanting to establish a rank choice voting system for Worcester because rank choice voting allows folks to not only take what we would consider maybe riskier and listeners, I'm using air quotes, but like riskier chances on a candidate that they're like, I really align with this person's values, but the incumbent might be the person that I assume is going to win.

[00:10:40] So I'm going to vote for them. Anyways, the rank choice voting process allows you to be like, no, I want to vote for the person that I'm really passionate about. But my second choice would be it. An incumbent, for example, running for this position because the likelihood of them winning might be higher statistically, but I want to make sure that my preference is actually reflected, and that could also influence the outcome of this like 1, 2, 3 tiered system.

[00:11:07] Domenica Perrone: Absolutely. And even in our city council races for at large, right? You know, last race we had about 12 candidates running. It's six positions. And there's different strategies that people use when they go and vote.

[00:11:20] They'll, they'll perhaps only vote for one candidate, right? So, in our own ways our, Our community, our base, quote unquote, for those that are supportive of certain campaigns will use different strategies because they, they won't cast six votes because they really want to make sure that their top candidate will win.

[00:11:41] And what that means is that their second favorite candidate, the, the candidate who may be is their second choice, maybe it's even their first choice, but like you said, They might not feel that that candidate could win. All those candidates are missing an opportunity to receive second, third, fourth place.

[00:11:58] And in a city like Worcester, where we have six seats, and it's an open race where there could be eleven, twelve candidates running, and we don't have ranked choice voting, what we end up having is actually a very non democratic outcome because people are just voting for one candidate. And what we see is that there are many great candidates that don't get a seat.

[00:12:19] I'm not even just speaking about myself here. I'm thinking of other candidates and races that I've supported, right? And they don't get a seat because we don't have the opportunity to vote for that second, third, fourth place choice that we, that we believe in.

[00:12:33] Joshua Croke: Absolutely. And the fact that the mayoral election is tied to the at large city councilor election is also a challenge.

[00:12:42] And I talked a little bit about that last week, and I'm going to highlight that again today in, in a little bit around potentially looking at separating what those two races look like, right? There is a difference, or there should be a difference, between the mayor of the city and at large councilor representation.

[00:13:03] But as I mentioned on the past couple episodes of this series, the mayor is effectively a ceremonial position in Worcester because of our e form of government that has the city manager as the head of the city, et cetera, et cetera. And this all ties to, you know, you talk about democratic process. I want to talk about money.

[00:13:22] I had a tell Hajiye on the show a few years ago and she said something that like I still bring into spaces with me is like the budget is a moral document, right? How we spend our money matters. It shows what our actual priorities are. 

[00:13:38] So I want to take a quick sidebar here to talk about what I consider to be a pretty fundamental issue in Worcester City government, which is the disparity in salaries and resources between the city council and the city manager's office. And this is not just about paychecks, like this gap has real consequences for representation, equity, and democratic balance in our local government.

[00:14:00] So, let's get into the numbers a little bit. And I want to shout out Tom Marino for his reporting on a this week in Worcester article where I've sourced much of this Intel and I'll share a link to his article, which is entitled the annual underfunding of Worcester city council from June of 2024 in the show notes.

[00:14:18] So the total budget allocation for the city council this year is just over 642, 000. This includes salaries for all 11 city counselors. There are three staff members, which includes the chief of staff and two council aides. The mayor's office has a modest budget in addition to this of around 185, 000, covering two additional employees who only report to the mayor.

[00:14:42] In contrast, The city manager's executive office budget is almost three times that At of the city council's at nearly 1. 8 million This funds salaries for 15 positions with a substantial portion dedicated to public relations and marketing So how this affects checks and balances for a moment in Worcester The City Council is our only fully elected legislative body, with the core responsibility of 1. appointing the City Manager, 2. approving the budget, and 3. creating City Ordinances. However, with limited staff and lower salaries compared to the City Manager's office, the Council is often at a disadvantage when trying to fulfill these essential roles. For example, the City Council's budget. Chief of staff makes around 99, 000 while the city manager's chief of staff earns 120, 000 with further gaps in support staff salaries as well.

[00:15:34] So this also like raises this conversation that we're having around the challenge of part time councils with limited resources. So I'm going to. Our city council members are part time earn under 35, 000 a year, and I'm quoting from the article, a city councilor's compensation is over 10, 000 below per capita income in Worcester County, which is 45, 433, and just above per per capita income in the city which is thirty three thousand five hundred ninety two dollars according to data from the U.

[00:16:05] S. Census Bureau. End quote. This makes it challenging for many qualified candidates to even consider running for office unless they have other sources of income. This means our City Council is not only financially limited, but also time restricted, impacting their ability to truly serve as an effective voice for residents.

[00:16:22] Domenica Perrone: Not to mention that Chief of Staff, you meant, you know, the Chief of Staff for the City Manager's Office is a Chief of Staff for the City Manager, but for a Chief of Staff for City Council, they have 11 counselors that they're working with, right?

[00:16:35] And so, the workload, you know It all contributes, when I was out there door knocking, one of the main things that everyone hears from people in our city is that they don't believe in the process because maybe they sent an email that was unanswered, maybe they made a phone call that was unanswered, and so people are already disengaged and they don't believe in the system because the system's not interacting back with them.

[00:17:03] Joshua Croke: Absolutely.

[00:17:03] Domenica Perrone: And this why, right?

[00:17:04] Joshua Croke: and you and I are both in the work of community engagement and know the importance of authentically engaging people in oftentimes broken systems and processes and trying to build what we do. greater representation, but also capacity and equity in these processes. And public participation in the city is so broken.

[00:17:28] Like that process is just so difficult to engage with. It feels like one, it's anxiety producing. You like stand in front of city council, you have two minutes and they say like, thank you, sit down.

[00:17:40] That's what it is. 

[00:17:41] Domenica Perrone: Exactly. And, and you know, at the end of the day, it's about rebuilding trust. And, you know, I, I get to do, and we'll talk a little bit about this later, about my work in healthcare and public health around trust, but civic engagement is the exact same thing, right?

[00:17:57] And if you look at the data for who shows out to vote for municipal elections the data all shows that most of the people are older and white. They come from the same parts of the city and you have to ask yourself why is it that we have certain communities that share demographics in our city that don't go out and vote?

[00:18:19] And it's the same folks who feel that there is no trust in these systems. Their voices are not heard, they don't feel supported, they don't feel that the city is interacting back with them when they do put forth You know qualms or ideas and so all of these things are connected when you're talking about the capacity of city council and the budget Because at the end of the day you could call the city manager's office and you know, you may hear back But this is our only democratic process that we have here in our city And people do not believe in it and trust is really difficult to rebuild

[00:18:54] Joshua Croke: Absolutely. And that, you know, talking about the implications for like democracy and participation. So just to reiterate, with limited staff and funding, the council's ability to effectively represent residents and provide a counterbalance to the city manager's power is really hindered. So, Worcester's government structure, where the city manager acts as the chief executive rather than the elected mayor, already concentrates a lot of power in an unelected mayor.

[00:19:20] Managers office and the structure like people will argue that it was meant to keep city operations non political But in reality it centralizes power and sidelines the council who are the elected officials you know, elected and placed there to represent the city. So, as folks are thinking, like, what is the path forward?

[00:19:41] I have a few recommendations, considerations that folks might consider in your own advocacy as residents of the city. One is a transition to full time counselor roles. So, shifting the council positions from part time to full time. Could allow counselors to fully dedicate themselves to serving their constituents and addressing the city's needs, which means an implementation of full time salaries that reflect the responsibilities of the role, making council positions accessible to a wider range of candidates, including those who cannot afford to take on this like, quote unquote, second job of being a city counselor, which comes with an incredible amount of responsibility.

[00:20:22] Second, Domenica, you just mentioned this as well, right? We need to increase the number of staff members assigned to support City Council through initiatives, research, constituent services, policy development, there's so many things that counselors, and I know the ones that are, I think, doing a lot of the good work in the community are drowning in Capacity issues, right?

[00:20:48] It's like I want to be able to advance XYZ, 1, 2, 3, etc. But the challenges around staffing and capacity is, is massive. So we should be considering specialized support roles like policy analysts, community engagement officers, speaking about community engagement, who help counselors respond more effectively to community needs and legislative demands.

[00:21:12] Something else that I know other cities have implemented is independent legal counsel for city council. So, allowing the city council to hire independent legal representation to provide objective legal guidance on issues where conflicts with the manager's office might arise, which reinforces the council's autonomy.

[00:21:31] So, ensuring that legal counsel can advocate specifically for the council's interest and provide clear, I would like to start with a brief introduction of the city council. We've been in this for a while now, and I'm excited to be here. I'm a member of the city council, and I'm here to talk about a couple of One is just a little bit more, more unbiased advice on charter amendments, ordinances, and other legislative members.

[00:21:43] Another thing that I am wildly passionate about is participatory budgeting. So really looking at a participatory budgeting process in partnership between the city council and city manager's office, which allows residents to have a direct say in how a portion of city funds are allocated, which. This would require a deep investment in transforming how we engage the public to make sure that representation is reflected in a participatory budgeting process.

[00:22:11] This would have been a very, very, very, very, very valuable tool when we had over a hundred something million dollars of ARPA money land in the city after COVID, which arguably was not distributed equitably. 

[00:22:26] Domenica Perrone: Would agree with that. I think you've made really wonderful suggestions here, Josh.Osh. Are there others that you have?

[00:22:31] Joshua Croke: I have three more.

[00:22:33] Domenica Perrone: I want to hear them all because I, everything that you've said already, I'm like, yes, these are, these are the exact things that we need. So what are the, the rest?

[00:22:40] Joshua Croke: So, the third to last is transition to a strong mayor system. So, considering restructuring Worcester's government to move from a city manager led model to a strong mayor form, making the mayor the chief executive officer of the city.

[00:22:54] So, this would enable the mayor who to be directly accountable to voters and have executive powers, including budget preparation, department oversight, while the council focuses on the legislative function. So, an elected body that is managing the executive function of the city, verse the legislative function.

[00:23:13] The other is really just around increasing transparency and accessibility to information again, allocating resources to ensure that council activities, meetings and budgets are transparent and accessible to all residents. Like we live in 2024 artificial intelligence is doing so much good, bad, bad, Otherwise, I think it can be an incredible tool to actually advance equity if equity is a priority in the utilization of technology.

[00:23:42] But you go to a city website and I'll say, I will say sadly, Worcester's website is actually strong for most municipal websites. There, there is actually a lot of information that is accessible there. It's pretty well organized, but there are still ways in which data information. Can be organized way more effectively and make way more sense to folks who are not sitting in the legalese of ordinances and things like that.

[00:24:11] Like it takes me like and speaking of a I copying and pasting the city agenda and saying what matters here is actually a pretty valuable way to not have to read through 80 page documents sometimes. And my last one. Is enhanced training and professional development for counselors as well. So folks that are running for public office are often thrown into the work in a way that is not fully supported through like training and development.

[00:24:39] So we should be considering how we provide council members with all of that. ongoing training in areas like municipal finance, urban planning, community development, and also invest in professional development resources to improve counselors skills, to help, you know, support and enable them to make informed decisions on complex issues, because at the end of the day, a lot of local elections Can be pointed to as popularity contests like there is some stat that I know that is like despite party affiliation People will often vote for a local candidate simply because they met them 

[00:25:15] Domenica Perrone: Right. Yeah, absolutely. If you're, if you shake someone's hand you know, there's statistics that say that that person is more likely to vote for you. So absolutely.

[00:25:27] Name recognition is a big one. When you're looking at local municipal campaigns, the sign game, you know, there's a lot of, when you start looking at campaign strategy, there's some Mixed reviews, right? Like there are people who say you need a door knock on as many doors as possible because shaking someone's hand is the best way.

[00:25:45] I would agree with that. Also in Worcester, the sign game is very strong. You will drive through the city on an election year and you will see huge signs. plastered all over the city with people's names. Again, that is tied to money, right? And when you look at who is funding certain candidates throughout the city, what you'll end up finding is that the same people who you know, support certain candidates kind of run the city.

[00:26:17] They run various institutions throughout the city. They're powerful individuals. Sometimes they run local media. Sometimes they run certain non profits.

[00:26:26] Joshua Croke: Sometimes they form a independent PAC.

[00:26:29] Domenica Perrone: Yes. And they all come together on that effort. And so, when you're really looking at it and you're thinking about preserving this democratic process that we so desperately need right now, and you're also looking at the issues that we have that we discuss around transparency and trust building, all the things that you mentioned, Josh, Would be, in my opinion, some of them low hanging fruit in order to remedy some of these issues that we have with communities in our city that are not being represented in our local elections.

[00:26:58] They don't go out to vote, they don't feel represented, and they're not reflected in campaigns. Whether that be through donations, engagement in PACs, or organizations and, and supporting campaigns in that manner. So they are, there are truly thousands of people in our city that are just, you know, Not represented at all in our local government, and that is a shame.

[00:27:20] Joshua Croke: Absolutely. We're going to keep our conversation going with Domenica next week. You've been listening to Public Hearing, a show about the second largest city in New England, and where we have interesting and timely conversations about issues that impact our community.

[00:27:33] I'm Joshua Croke, the creator and host of Public Hearing. Our audio producer is Giuliana D'Orazio. You can learn more and follow Public Hearing and other projects of Queer for Cities at queerforcities. com.